


Reassembled

by Neverever



Category: Avengers Assemble (Cartoon), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 890fifth, Breaking Up & Making Up, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Pining, Steve Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 21:53:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4365530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neverever/pseuds/Neverever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve starts to regret leaving the Avengers after getting angry at Tony. And he might have feelings other than anger for Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reassembled

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the last round of 890 Fifth prompts: Endgame.
> 
> This fic is based on the Ultron arc of Avengers Assemble but this can be read without watching the show.
> 
> Big thanks to my beta on this.

Steve had to admit that he was right back where he started. He’d been defrosted, sent to SHIELD and left for the Avengers, and now was back at SHIELD after leaving the Avengers. Because Tony trusted him, but not trusted him enough, leaving a gap in their friendship so wide you could drive a tractor-trailer through it.

Which was why Steve was precariously perched on his bed in a room about the size of a prison cell, eating cafeteria food out of a plastic take-out container and watching the Mets game on his laptop. The rooms for visitors on the helicarrier apparently didn’t even merit basic cable. If he’d been at the Tower where he belonged, he wouldn’t be cramped up trying to watch his struggling team on a feed he didn’t think was actually all that legal, come to think about it. There was a lot to be said for listening to the game on the radio like he did growing up.

But he wasn’t at the Tower. There was a nearly indestructible homicidal robot loose on the world that had to be stopped. He pitched his lot in with Nick’s crew for the time being, until Ultron was stopped and Steve figured out what his next steps would be now that he left the Avengers.

If Ultron wasn’t out there about to destroy all humans on earth, Steve would have likely taken a few days for a road trip, to clear his head about Tony. Returned in a better mood, more able to deal with the fact that Tony didn’t think the same way about him as he did Tony. 

But Steve could out-stubborn a mule on any given day. He was angry, and betrayed, and confused. All because Tony couldn’t tell the team what was really going on with Ultron. Or told them just enough to nearly get them all killed. Then Tony kept dancing on the edge of destruction after that. Steve couldn’t deal with that. 

Even leaving the team, it got worse, watching Tony blindly forging ahead with each new attempt to take out Ulton once and for all. He always pushed the envelope, but this time he put the safety of all humanity at risk for the sake of a not particularly well-thought-out plan.

Steve could have strangled him. Defeating Ultron wasn’t exactly a seat-of-your-pants type of plan. And then half the team followed him to SHIELD after Tony put them all at risk again. Tony had to resort to desperate measures to stop Ultron from taking over the Iron Man armors, but Ultron ultimately escaped.

The picture froze on his computer. Again. Steve sighed. Maybe he should read reports instead.

~~~~~

Steve found that the SHIELD helicarrier gym wasn’t so bad. He had access to a treadmill and weight sets. There was a punching bag in the corner. Today he was working the bag, still trying to make sense out of it all. 

He got why the Avengers dissolved in the first place. They had put nearly all the supervillains in prison and the weekly earth-saving had slowed to a crawl. Steve left the mansion to move into his own apartment and stayed in touch with his old teammates. Then Tony pulled the team together again to save Steve’s hide, there was a need for the Avengers all of a sudden, and Steve moved into the Tower with everyone else.

It was different this time. Tony was different, he was different. Steve couldn’t put his finger on why. The team functioned, they had a lot of laughs and things were going great. Steve had been happy.

And things had been especially great with Tony. Steve had developed a habit of bringing Tony coffee when he was in the workshop or data crux. They talked late into the night watching whatever was on the television. They made bets, laughed a lot over Clint’s youtube videos, just spent a lot of time together. Steve sort of thought that maybe Tony was making a point of hanging out with him.

Steve punched the bag harder. He didn’t understand a thing. He’d put everything on the line for Tony body and soul. Now he found out that Tony wouldn’t do that for him. It didn’t make sense at all. 

The bag fell apart under Steve’s constant barrage. He took the ruined bag off the hook and installed another one. He bounced back and forth on his feet, testing his hands and stance. He attacked the bag again.

Steve noted that Sam and Natasha had shown up for their workouts. His sensitive hearing picked up Sam asking Natasha, “How long can he keep this up?”

“All day,” Natasha replied. 

“That can’t be good.”

“You know Steve, he believes in training.”

“I know. But I don’t think that SHIELD is all that good for Steve -- he’s named, numbered, and categorized every possible attack plan for one thing.”

“Steve’s an organized person.”

“But -- he lives in his room or here in the gym. When he’s not planning missions with Fury.”

“Steve will work it out, Sam.”

Somehow hearing that conversation made Steve even angrier. It was going to be a long day in the gym. He had to shake himself free from thinking about the Avengers and Tony and get his head into the Ultron hunting game.

~~~~~

Steve liked recycling. Because that way he didn’t feel the least bit guilty tossing out the SHIELD Counseling Center pamphlets slipped anonymously under his door.

He was fine. Perfect. Never better. He had a job, a focus, a plan, a mission. Honestly, what more did he need in life? He was a soldier in a war to save the Earth and that should be good enough for him.

Even if he remembered the weight of Tony in his arms when Tony re-aged after taking the Time Stone out of the arc reactor. That way Tony looked up at him, through his lashes and said, “We’ve hugged it out enough today, Cap.”

What if Steve never wanted to end the hugging?

As directed, Steve reported into Fury. Still annoyed with Steve because of how he handled the last mission and disobeyed his orders, Fury made Steve watch the news footage of Tony’s Avengers flail about the city. Steve half heard Fury’s critical commentary as he looked for clues in the footage about how Tony was holding up. 

He might be angry with Tony but that didn’t mean he didn’t also worry about him. A lot. More than he should. He didn’t like what he was seeing. Tony was getting pushed into a corner he likely couldn’t fight his way out of. 

“Cap, I want you to bring in Stark and his team. For questioning,” Fury said.

“Right.” 

Steve called up his team. Sam was fretting over arresting their old teammates. Natasha shrugged it off. And Hulk wasn’t talking -- there was something going on there, Steve guessed. He was likely disturbed with the way that SHIELD agents were treating him. Steve would have to correct that. 

His thoughts drifted back to Tony and what he would say when he saw him. He always knew he’d see Tony again. And it wasn’t a surprise that they would meet fighting a supervillain. 

~~~~~

Steve didn’t know why he thought Tony would have changed in the week and a half after he left the Avengers. Tony was still as brash as ever, insisting he was right and that he was on the verge of stopping Ultron. Anger flooded over Steve, even though it wasn’t in him to actually drag Tony back to SHIELD despite the words coming out of his mouth.

It only got worse when Ultron mutated into a nano-virus and commandeered Sam. They raced Ultron throughout New York trying to stop the nano-virus. Taking stock of the situation, Steve met Tony’s eyes. They had to do this together. Steve paired off their friends into teams, sending them after Ultron robots. He ended up with Tony by design. He knew that Tony would have a plan. He could keep the fight going, buy Tony the time he needed. That’s what he told Tony. And Tony finally listened to him. 

Standing on the helicarrier as they talked about what to do next, Steve looked him directly in the eyes. “What about Arsenal?”

Covered in grime and face slick with sweat, Tony nodded wearily. “I had to try to save him, I didn’t want to be the one who destroyed my dad’s greatest creation.”

The defeated look on Tony’s face and sound of failure in his voice cut Steve deep to the bone. He put a hand on Tony’s shoulder. “No, you are his greatest creation.”

Although Tony’s eyes lit up, Steve felt that anything that he could say couldn’t erase years of neglectful parenting. He silently cursed Howard for twisting Tony like this. So that someone so brilliant and talented and beautiful was filled with so much doubt about his worth.

The team, functioning as they were meant to, went after Ultron. Tony was focused and determined. Tony’s plan was simple -- to fly Ultron into the sun -- and Steve’s role was to keep the fight going on earth.

Once Tony lured Ultron to his shuttle and headed towards the sun, Steve could only watch and wait. He had never felt so conflicted in his life. He hadn’t forgotten his anger with Tony, but the defeat and sadness in Tony’s eyes when he mentioned Arsenal haunted Steve. He could sense other feelings, worry for Tony, happiness fighting next to him, love for his friend. 

Love. He loved Tony. 

Was that why he was so angry with Tony when he thought that Tony didn’t trust him the way Steve trusted him?

He didn’t have the time to sort it all out now. Returning to the streets to fight the Ultron virus there, he could hear everything that was going on the comms. Sam found them the way to disable Ultron’s terrifying nano-virus. He heard Tony arguing with Ultron on the shuttle. His breath caught in his throat. He did the math -- Tony wasn’t going to make it back. He was going to sacrifice himself.

No. Steve was in pure agony. He wasn’t where he should be -- by Tony’s side beating Ultron into submission. He couldn’t rescue Tony. 

But he had a teammate who could. “Thor, go get Tony before he falls into the sun,” he ordered over the comms.

“Aye, Captain,” Thor said as he launched himself into space.

All Steve could do now was pray for Tony’s safe return. The helicarrier erupted in cheers when Tony announced that Ultron had been thrown into the sun. Part of Steve died when he heard Tony’s goodbye speech. He desperately hoped that Thor had gotten there in time.

There were no words when he watched Thor re-enter the atmosphere and Hulk leap up to catch both Thor and Tony. Tony was safe and alive. 

That’s all Steve could think about as he oversaw clean-up efforts. His Tony was safe and alive and being fussed over by paramedics a couple of streets over. That’s all that mattered right now.

~~~~~

After the clean-up and a celebratory dinner at a local shawarma place, Steve returned to the Tower. Tony had managed to get some of the Tower’s systems online but Steve wanted to see if it was possible to stay in the Tower. He wasn’t keen on returning to his empty room on the helicarrier.

Steve had missed this place. Tony had given him a room large enough so that Steve could have an area for his painting. Steve righted his deserted easel and noted that the damage was mostly minimal. He still had windows for one thing.

“Steve?” Tony asked.

“I thought you were heading to a bar with the rest of the team,” Steve said. 

“Everyone else is going. I opted for dropping Sam off at his mother’s apartment and now I’m here,” Tony replied. 

He was wearing his usual outfit of a black t-shirt and jeans. But the strain of the last few days had left its mark on his face. Steve hated seeing that. 

“So, not so bad here,” Tony observed.

“Electricity makes it better.” 

Tony grimaced. “It’s going to take weeks to get everything back in place.”

“You were talking about replacing some of the systems. And the television in the living room.”

Tony chuckled. “That too.” He made his way over to Steve, who was putting books back on the shelves. “I’m planning to bring in Damage Control to fix that.”

Steve shrugged. “I’d like to feel that I’m home. So I don’t mind.”

Tony put a warm hand on Steve’s shoulder. “Steve --”

“Don’t,” Steve said. “I want to forget it.”

"Steve.” Tony took a deep breath. “Look, I might possibly have been a little bit wrong about not informing the team about what I knew about Ultron.”

Steve surged towards Tony, grabbing him by the shirt and pushing him towards the wall. “Steve -- I’m trying to apologize here, buddy,” Tony said. He yelped as Steve pinned him to the wall.

“Tony,” Steve gasped out. He ran his hand through Tony’s hair, then cupped the back of his head to pull him close. And then Steve kissed him.

Steve kissed Tony over and over, desperately trying to show Tony how he missed him. He poured all his longing, his need, his love into his kisses. He could feel Tony trembling against him, the beating of his heart and hum of the arc reactor against Steve’s chest. And Tony kissed him back, just as desperately. Tony’s needy noises echoed in Steve’s ears and blood. He tugged and grasped at Tony, chasing after the warmth and friction of his body against his. 

“Steve,” Tony gasped out. “I had no idea --”

“That I felt this way?” Steve slipped his fingers under Tony’s waistband. He needed to feel that Tony was alive. 

“Yeah, for one thing. We can talk about the kissing thing later.” Tony groaned as Steve groped his ass. “But I had no idea that you’d be this happy to see me.”

Steve put his head on Tony’s forehead and stilled his hands. “I am so angry that you didn’t trust me. But you almost died.”

“Steve -- oh, god, Steve.” Tony grasped Steve’s chin and tugged his face so that he could look into Steve’s eyes. “No. Don’t think that.”

“Think what?”

“That anything I did was because I didn’t trust you.”

“But you didn’t trust me, not enough to tell me about Ultron. And then you and Arsenal --”

“I know, Steve, but I thought I’d solve it all before it ever became a problem. I don’t want --”

Steve shut up him with kisses. Tony felt so alive and real under his hands and lips. He didn’t ever want to stop kissing Tony.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but stop, Steve. Stop it.”

Confused, Steve pulled back. “Tony?”

“Are we good now? Really good? No surprise here’s-my-Avengers-card-I’m-quitting moments?”

“No. I meant what I said. Avengers, not SHIELD.” He kissed Tony once more for emphasis.

Tony put his hand on Steve’s chest. “Are we good?”

“Tony, I have my hands on your ass. I think that means we’re good.” 

“I missed you, so damn much, Steve.” Tony pressed a line of kisses along Steve’s jaw. “Don’t ever leave like that again. Ever.”

“No, Tony.” He ran a hand through Tony’s thick wavy hair, enjoying the feel of the locks slipping against his fingers. “But I need to know what you’re thinking.”

“I’ll work on it. I promise.” Tony sighed and slumped against Steve. “You have no idea how hard this was without you.”

“You did great.”

“I thought you were happy at SHIELD --”

Steve kissed Tony a few times more. “No, never. But we have some things to work out.”

“You told me that you needed to know what I’m thinking?”

“Hmmm, yes.” Steve was reveling in the warmth and scent of Tony -- the smell of metal and coffee. He held Tony tightly, running a hand up and down Tony’s back.

“I’m thinking that there’s a sadly underused bed over there.” Tony pointed his head in the direction of Steve’s bed. “We could move this meeting to a more comfortable place.”

Steve scooped Tony up. “Best idea I’ve heard all day.”

Much later, Steve lay in bed, tangled up with Tony, dizzy and pleasantly tired. Tony’s head was tucked into his shoulder and his breath warmed Steve’s sweat-slicked skin. Steve caressed Tony’s arm. “Tony, I was thinking --”

“I’m guessing that the next words out of your mouth are either let’s take a shower or let’s order in,” Tony said and yawning. And somehow managed to snuggle in closer to Steve. “I hope.”

“Yeah.” Steve could barely move. 

“I could ask the robots to bring in take-out, that way we could avoid Thor and Hulk arm-wrestling for breadsticks.”

Steve laughed, and couldn’t stop laughing for a long time. Because his life was strange like that. A tired Tony managed a few chuckles. 

“I’m glad to be home, Tony.”


End file.
